Category Archives: Sports

After Chicago Michelle and I figured we were already half way across the country and decided to travel to the East Coast. Not wanting to do New York like we normally do, we decided on Boston. We got to our hotel pretty late, but being in The Back Bay, there were plenty of food options.

Boston is known for its New American style of food. There are places on practically every block serving this style of cuisine. We chose The Salty Pig for our first grub spot.

Prosciutto, Speck, Hard Gouda, Fig Jam, Chianti Jelly.

Mushroom Pizza, Topped with a Farm Egg.

Granted we were pretty hungry after travelling, but I really enjoyed this place. They’ve got a small rotation of beers that are pretty good, and their staff is super friendly, even after I brought up the Red Sox end of the regular season implosion.

My buddy Tim has been wanting to check out some of the breweries that produce the beer we enjoy so much. We finally booked a weekend and left an open invitation to our friends, but no one wanted to go. Michelle even declined to go saying, “I don’t want to be a third wheel.” Consequently, the beer we bottled before we left on the trip we called Third Wheel.

Our first stop on our way down was Phil’s BBQ, a very popular food joint that hasn’t made its way out of the San Diego area yet. It’s only a matter of time though, because this place is awesome.

Pulled pork over a bed of cabbage. Although the pork was plenty juicy, this is where I would put more BBQ sauce. The sweetness would compliment this sandwich well.

Their beer battered onion rings are incredible.

We really had no schedule for breweries on Friday, but Hess Brewery was doing an event to support the fight against Multiple Sclerosis. Ian, the guy on the poster, has lost the use of his legs due to MS but is still doing a 150 mile ride from Irvine to San Diego to raise funds to fight MS. Check out his site here.

Hess was busy with lots of people supporting Ian and enjoying good beer.

Unfortunately for me, I lack the mustache for the cream to take hold, so I get the pervert cream ‘stache at the edge of my lip.

The best part about beer is that you can sit on a curb and ponder life while drinking it, much like whisky, gin, and vodka.

We managed to score some inexpensive tickets to a Padres game.

It was Padres vs. Diamondbacks, two teams we care nothing for, so the game was pretty pouring. Fortunately they serve Stone and Ballast Point on tap at the stadium.

After the game, we headed to Roberto’s to get some carne asada fries. The asada was pretty dry. It’s probably been this way every time I went in college, but just like back in the day, it was pretty satisfying.

Still wanting to drink a few more beers, we headed to Pizza Port. I really enjoy Oskar Blues’ Gubna.

The pizza isn’t bad here other. The sauce doesn’t stand out very much from the big chain pizza joints, but they pile on lots of fresh toppings and the curst is fantastic. I would love to have a pizza joint like this locally that serves great beer.

We even threw a Hannah Montana themed party for a very special person.

And there she is.

I saw UCLA lose to Washington. Got a great program with good years ahead.

I learned that nuns really like boba.

I don’t have any pictures from New Year’s Eve that don’t have someone looking a little drunk, passed out, or just raging. Those pictures will remain under wraps. I personally behaved this year, unlike someother years past.

So the Saints have won the Super Bowl. I’m not going to pretend I’m happy about that. I was rooting for the Colts, but it’s not that I like them. I couldn’t care less about these two franchises. After my actual teams I cheer for, I look for teams to cheer against.

My NCAA grudges carry over into the professional leagues. So for teams that draft USC Trojans, they get an automatic booing from me for five years. Reggie Bush is why I wanted New Orleans to lose. A win would have been sweeter, but Reggie’s almost no show performance was an okay second for me.

Now that football season is over, it’s time to shift my focus back to basketball. Time to heckle OJ Mayo and the Memphis Grizzlies, even if they have no chance of winning.

So everyone is aware that USC did its own investigation and imposed its own sanctions against itself for their NCAA violations. I’m calling bullshit on this. This is like celebrities going into rehab. It’s the way to weasel out of true responsibility. USC doesn’t give a rat’s ass about its violations and is hoping to escape further punishment and embarrassment. You know damn well the same alumni that line the coach’s pockets with cash are looking the other way when it trickles down to the players. I hope the NCAA comes down on USC hard. It’s the only way they will learn.

After watching over five hours of NCAA Football yesterday with my dad and friends, I’d like to share a few pearls of wisdom that no one cares about but me.

I don’t like USC, mostly because I am a Bruin. Nothing more needs to be said about that.

I hate Notre Dame. If they are playing, I want them to lose even if they’re playing USC. Notre Dame has an unfair advantage of a television contract with NBC. While that money can’t be spent directly on the players, their program can hire better coaching staff, have more state of the art training equipment, and give non monetary perks to the players like nicer dorms and textbooks. Until NBC stops its contact with Notre Dame, they will always be the team I want to lose. Fortunately their head coach sucks balls and hasn’t done shit with their program despite their monetary advantage.

Another thing that needs to be done is an academic standard needs to be set for student athletes or they need to stop being called students. I think it’s pathetic that any university would allow an individual onto the campus for a primary reason other than academics. Universities like Stanford and UCLA are at the top of the list of schools with high academic standards for their athletes. If you can’t keep the grades up, maybe you should keep your nose in the textbooks a little more and less in the playbook.

I can speak specifically for UCLA, because I stay on top of their recruiting. Take a look across the country and you’ll find kids who wanted to be Bruins, but UCLA turned them down for academic reasons. Just this season Tennessee’s interim president said, “When we lost to UCLA, we lost to a better academic institution, too.” Academics should never be an issue for athletes. Universities should be striving to give kids the best possible education. I guarantee you schools like Alabama, Florida, and Texas don’t turn down good athletes for academic reasons, which is absolutely a shame. They’re not doing any favors for the majority of the athletes who won’t make careers out of football.

The standard wouldn’t even have to be stringent. I understand that alumni don’t necessarily care about the genetic research being done on campus. They want to see athletic competitions, but would a minimum of two classes with a passing term average be too much to ask? This way each university could set it’s standards as to what is passing, but the athletes would be held to the same standards as any other student. If a university doesn’t care to set academics as its priority then that’s their choice, but they won’t last very long without students wanting to attend.

It’s time we level the playing field, while at the same time raising the bar for academic standards for our student athletes. It might save us from stupidity in the NFL with such gems as Michael Vick, Plaxico Buress, and Ray Lewis.

I can’t get an iPhone. I borrowed an iPhone just to use Twitter in a place where I had no reception. I had to go to three screens just to type my password because of the combination of letters, numbers, and special characters.

Asking, “Do you still want to get married some day?” and getting a yes response does not constitute an easy, no-ring marriage proposal.

Every time Los Angeles wins a sports championship, there will be riots. We do not have the fortune to shuttle our minorities out of the city via bridge like San Francisco or by tunnel like New York.

I’ve kept quiet about the Lakers throughout this season and even the playoffs. A calm confidence in the Lakers is what I’ve had this season. They’re the best team in the league, but their future after this season is a big question mark.

There are a couple key guys that set to be free agents this year. Both Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza are going to want to renegotiate their contracts, and they both deserve more. The question is, do the Lakers have more to give?

If they had to keep their current lineup and decide between Odom and Ariza, I would go with Ariza. I really like both players, but I’m just going based on age and who is behind them on the bench. While Lamar is exceptional as a big man in his ability to shoot outside, drive inside, and bring the ball up the court, you’ve got Mbenga and Powell behind him. While they don’t compare to Lamar, they do a good enough job on the defensive end by just being big.

Would I like to keep both of these guys? Hell yeah! Here is my proposal for doing that.

Get rid of Sasha. The dude is whiney, and his defensive expert signature move is to foul on the outside when the guy isn’t even close to shooting. Someone wants his shooting ability, which has gone dormant this off season. It’s just hibernating, waiting for next season.

Drop Walton. I know a lot of people now want my head, because I’m saying this. The guy is super likeable, and he does bring a level of calm to the second string, but it bothers me so much that he looks to pass before he shoots even when he’s open. He will have an open look and dump the ball off to Pau, who assumes he is going to shoot the open shot. Crazy, huh? By bringing this leadership to a team and by sheer virtue of being a Walton, someone will want him.

I have some other ideas I think the Lakers should implement, but I’ll save that for another time. For now I’m going to clear some space in my garage. I need room for all the stuff I’m going to loot during the 2009 Lakers Victory Riot.

Spencer hooked us up with some tickets to Coachella, so we decided to make a mini vacation out of it. We weren’t too impressed with the lineup, so we decided to take it easy and just catch a few ones we liked. It was a nice road trip.

Wrong bathroom? Maybe not.

Attire at Coachella is not optional. Taste is optional though.

Michelle: Weren’t they in that plane accident?Matt: Yes.Michelle: Do they look okay? They can perform?Matt: They look terrible and their music is horrible now too, but no one has the heart to say anything.Michelle: Really?Me: No.

TRV$DJAM were awesome, rocking everything from classics like this one to music everyone would recognize. The rocked to The White Stripes, Notorious BIG, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, and even had Warren G show up for a surprise performance. We got to be right in the middle of all the action. Check out Michelle’s post to see how crazy it got.

MIA is a strange performer. Creativity only goes so far before things stop making sense. She threw out these plastic horns into the crowd for people to blow, but she was pulling them out of a bucket. It looked like feeding time at Sea World.

I suppose I have to say something about my team, who got worked over in the second around of the tournament. I’ve said something about them the past couple of years when they’ve performed well. It would make me a band wagon fan to not speak up for the Bruins.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say the loss wasn’t disappointing. If you’re a true fan every loss is disappointing. It wasn’t surprising though. UCLA is not the team it has been for the previous two years. With Aboya being the only real active big man for them and having to playing in the Eastern Division, they were sitting ducks.

The tournament is still absolutely exciting even with my team already eliminated. This year North Carolina has shown itself to be the favorite but not by much. Nobody is so absolutely dominant and I’m expecting more upsets.

Even beyond the tournament I am looking forward to UCLA’s basketball future. I am hoping Holiday will stay for at least another year. We have some good power forwards committed to our program. If our guards can be aggressive and shoot well from the outside, we have an exciting future ahead of us even we can’t snag a big man.

Me

Hello, there. My name is Matt, but on this website I just refer to myself as m@. I love all things Star Wars, food, beer, and music, especially The Beatles. I'm one who likes to be noticed and will sometimes say or do inappropriate things to get your attention. I'm perfectly complimented by my online and real life partner Michelle.